ULUDERE REPORT – Kürkçü: “Parliament Missed Opportunity”

BIANET 28.3.2013 – Reacting to the ratification of Uludere report in a parliamentarian commission yesterday, Peace and Democracy Party deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü said the parliament missed the opportunity to be the constituent force of the peace ongoing process.

Reacting to the ratification of Uludere report in a parliamentarian commission yesterday, Peace and Democracy Party deputy Ertuğrul Kürkçü said the parliament missed the opportunity to be the constituent force of the peace ongoing process. “Unfortunately, we were unable to prevent it from happening since commission members from AKP outnumbered the other parties,” he said.

On March 6, a parliamentary commission in charge of investigating Uludere incident – a Turkish military air strike that killed 34 civilians in December 2011 – ratified its draft report without the approval vote of commission members from opposition parties.  “Throughout the discussions, deputies from opposition parties made their claim on the ground that the air strike might have been performed even though there was a doubt thatcivilians might be targeted. They pointed the army chief responsible for the air strikes. But commission members from AKP decided to let the court decide on the Uludere claims, saying that there was no evidence. The report did not satisfy anybody including the beloved ones of Roboski victims,” Kürkçü said.

“Report harmed the new peace process”

Ertuğrul Kürkçü reiterated that the report has no visible contribution to the peace process between PKK and Turkey.

“On the contrary,” Kürkçü continued, “It harmed the new peace process. The parliament missed the opportunity to compromise scores of families in Turkey. It broke the hearts of millions of families.” Kürkçü claimed that commission members mostly fell weak against opposition’s criticismat the commission. “The parliament missed the opportunity to be the constituent force in the peace process. The commission proved to be a notary tool of the AKP government,” Kürkçü said. Kürkçü underscored that the opposition parties did not accept the report and will find a new platform to continue their struggle sooner or later. (YY/BM)